Marc Davis Horrible, horrible, horrible!!! Where to begin? It didn't take me even 5 minutes of viewing this dreadful film to see how bad it is. The acting is beyond bad, the dialog is elementary, the plot is hardly believable, and worst of all, for a movie about a gospel choir, it should be a sin for there to be such obvious lip-syncing going on during some of the singing scenes.Dolly Parton as G.G. Sparrow and Queen Latifah as V. Rose Hill, two prominent, vocal (literally) members of a church choir, battle it out to see who's musical style will win out. Sparrow wants a contemporary sound and V. Rose Hill favors the more traditional gospel style. Of course, all parties involved will come together just in time to save the choir during the choir competition near the end. Yea right - in what alternate universe does this occur? Even their names tells you how utterly ridiculous this story is. Also unbelievable is the subplot about love between Olivia, V. Rose's daughter and Randy, Sparrow's grandson, played by Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan, respectively. Jordan and Palmer have negative (-)100% chemistry. Zip-O!!!! And the dialogue and interaction between these two are flat. Oh, and if you've never heard of these two,don't worry. You're not alone. Many viewers haven't. To her credit,Keke Palmer has a decent resume of work as an actress, and definitely was not as stiff as Jeremy Jordan, but she wasn't much better.Courtney B. Vance has a supporting role as the pastor of the church where the choir is based. He is clearly making the best of a terrible script. Dolly Parton also puts in a commendable performance, with her quirky but Southernly charm. One of the more touching parts of this sterile film is Dolly Parton's performance of "From Here to the Moon and Back". Otherwise, "Joyful Noise" runs like a 118-minute rip off of the Sister Act films, except Latifah's no Whoopi Goldberg and Keke Palmer's no Lauryn Hill.

elgordo15 I love music. It might be the 45 years of performing it on one level or another or it might be that I just appreciate well-produced music, but the music in "Joyful Noise" is superb.I wish that I could praise this movie even more, but I've seen it too many times already. There are shades of so many films past in here, the ones that come most to mind are "Brassed off" about a coal mining town in England fallen on hard times and their superb brass band who wins the national competition despite the town's reluctance to continue financially supporting it (sound familiar yet to anyone who has seen "Noise"?) and "The Preacher's Wife" with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington about upheavals in the local church's choir. BTW, another big role in that movie, the Preacher, was played by Courtney B. Vance, who played (wait for it..) THE PREACHER in "Noise"! Didn't Vance at some point think to himself "Hey! I've done this before!". Maybe he did, I don't know, maybe he didn't care. I expected more from a movie fronted by such lights as Dolly Parton, Queen Latifa and Kris Kristopherson.If you want to hear some roaring good music though, rent the DVD, crank up the bass, sit back and enjoy. Look past the movie and take the music for what it is, superb!

OBQn As a born again Christian, I loved this movie! Yes, there was cussing and out of marriage sex,but, guess what-Christians do this and God still loves them. Music is incredible...for me, this movie was a great reminder that God loves us, and if we let Him, He will make us better! Loved the "Fix me, Jesus" song. Give the movie a try and see if you don't smile! I plan to buy the soundtrack of this movie. Loved most of the songs. Dolly Parton has still got it! Queen Latifah, what a voice! Really enjoyed the Olivia and Randy characters...such sweet voices, both of them! Keke Palmer has grown into such a beautiful young lady. Praise His Name and let Him take you higher!

Ed Uyeshima If you love the exuberant singing on "Glee", chances are pretty good you will like this predictable 2012 musical and overlook the numerous plot deficiencies that bring the characters into a climactic singing competition. Naturally that means a lot of rehearsal filled with Whitney-style, gospel renditions of familiar Top 40 pop classics. On this level, it doesn't disappoint since the churchy arrangements bring out a roof-raising soulfulness that is otherwise missing from the flimsily plotted film. Energetic performances of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" and Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" definitely deliver the goods at key moments, but director/screenwriter Todd Graff ("Camp") relies on tired stereotypes and down-home hokum to fill out the framework of a story about a small Georgia town hard hit by the current economic downturn. Providing a beacon of light is the Sacred Divinity Choir anchored by two divas with opposing sensibilities, the conservative and financially struggling Vi Rose Hill and the saucy and wealthy G.G. Sparrow.The movie wastes no time in giving G.G.'s husband Bernard a fatal coronary even before the opening credits are complete. The uptight church pastor needs to find a successor and chooses Vi Rose over G.G. setting the stage for a stylistic war over the choir's musical direction. Naturally, Vi Rose prefers traditional gospel, while G.G. wants a more contemporary twist to the arrangements, which suits Vi Rose's 16-year-old daughter Olivia just fine since she is a budding soloist with those gymnastically limber, Mariah-inspired pipes you either love or hate. Complicating matters is G.G.'s juvenile delinquent grandson Randy, who of course, turns out to be a talented singer in his own right and falls head-over-heels for Olivia. Once you add Olivia's quirky younger brother Walter, who turns out to have Asperger's Syndrome, and Manny, a conveniently talented guitarist and Randy's rival for Olivia's affection, you have the makings of a suspense-free, by-the- numbers soap opera with the sophistication of a young adult novel.It wouldn't be giving much away to state that it all climaxes with a face-off between the choir and the prodigious Our Lady of Perpetual Tears youth choir, spotlighting lead singer Ivan Kelley Jr., who impresses with his knockout version of Billy Preston's "That's the Way God Planned It". The choir counters with a rousing medley of Sly and the Family Stone, Usher, Chris Brown and Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours". Outside of the singing, the performances are serviceable and little more. Queen Latifah and a cosmetically altered Dolly Parton play Vi Rose and G.G. to their accustomed, outsized personalities. As Olivia, Keke Palmer ("Akeelah and the Bee") has a strong set of pipes as does current Broadway sensation Jeremy Jordan ("Newsies") as Randy, but neither makes much of an impression otherwise. Poor Kris Kristofferson has barely a moment as Bernard and then shows up later in a fantasy duet with Parton on her touching "From Here to the Moon and Back". Jesse L. Martin ("Rent") is also wasted in a small role as Vi Rose's estranged husband who escaped to the Army when he couldn't find a job. This is a highly conventional, cliché-driven film that is probably best left as a soundtrack purchase.